Action to save oceans backed

Poll finds Americans in favor of treaties, ready to eat less seafood

By ROBERT MCCLURE, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Published
10:00 pm PST, Sunday, February 15, 2004

Most Americans favor international treaties to rescue the ailing oceans and say they are willing to eat less of certain kinds of seafood threatened by overfishing, a national poll released yesterday in Seattle showed.

Just under half of Americans questioned in the poll support regulations restricting coastal development and -- despite what scientists say -- only one-third believe their own actions have a large impact on oceans and coastal areas.

The findings come as a national study commission prepares to report that people's actions are dragging down the oceans' health and that the government must revamp its confused approach to protecting America's seas.

They were released in conjunction with the AAAS' first town hall meeting to engage the public in science issues, this one focusing on what should be done to buoy Puget Sound's flagging health.

"If we want healthy seafood, we need healthy ecosystems. It's that simple," said Oregon State University marine scientist Jane Lubchenco in a news briefing. "We have taken that bounty for granted and now face unanticipated challenges."

"We need to act as we get information, and we must not put the burden on scientists to be completely certain before we take action," Varanasi said in her address at the meeting. "The policy-makers need to be brave enough to make decisions."

The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy was authorized by Congress and appointed by President Bush to explore the health of America's seas. It is composed mostly of scientists, business people and former government officials, and its report is due out in the next several weeks.

It follows the release last spring of the privately financed Pew Oceans Commission report, which decried the state of America's seas as "in crisis."

While the upcoming U.S. commission's report differs some in emphasis and recommendations, it largely will track the findings of the earlier document about the health of the oceans, say its architects.

From both panels, "the message is that we are faced with a serious situation, and we need to move on finding solutions," said Lubchenco, of the Pew panel.

Coastal development, scientists say, harms the oceans in a number of ways, including shunting tainted water into nearshore areas when rain washes oil, animal feces and many other pollutants off streets and other hard surfaces. Automobile exhaust and scrapings of toxic copper from brakes find their way into nearby waterways and ultimately the ocean.

Even development far inland can have this effect. A "dead zone" the size of New Jersey has developed in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of pollutants washed down the Mississippi River from as far north as Canada.

"When it comes to oceans, what happens on land is as important as what happens in oceans," Lubchenco said.

"We're losing coastal habitats at a frantic pace."

Scientists last year reported that 90 percent of the large fishes of the sea, such as tuna, swordfish and halibut, have been taken since World War II by industrial fishing fleets. In the AAAS poll, 72 percent of those questioned agreed that protecting oceans is best done globally, such as through treaties governing fish and oil-drilling practices.

Sixty percent said they were willing to eat less of certain kinds of fish to help improve ocean health. Fifty-six percent agreed the government should spend money on research to reduce pollution. Those numbers dropped to 47 percent in favor of government regulation restricting use of the seashore and 46 percent supporting local efforts to reduce business and economic development of coastal areas.

In Puget Sound, vast stretches of shoreline that nourishes small fish crucial to the food chain have been destroyed by bulkheads and other erosion-protection measures. The destruction affects three-quarters of Snohomish County's shoreline and two-thirds of King's.

Fully 79 percent of those polled agreed that man-made stresses "may well be leading to long-term damage and serious problems."

"A large majority of the public is deeply troubled by the environmental changes facing our oceans and coastal areas," said Alan Leshner, chief executive of AAAS.

The AAAS poll was conducted by Porter Novelli, an international public-relations firm. The 2,400 respondents, part of a consumer-research consumer-mail panel, were weighted to be representative of the U.S. population. However, Porter Novelli representatives were unable to say late yesterday what the margin of error is.

Often, such research seeks to be 95 percent certain it is within 2 to 4 percentage points of the results that would be produced by polling the entire population.